4 Olympic teams advance in tourney Posted on May 12th
Olympic Conference teams were big winners in the opening round of the Joe Hartmann Diamond Classic.
An Olympic team has advanced into each of Saturday’s quarterfinals of the 35th annual tournament.
The Olympic fab four: Shawnee, Cherry Hill West, Lenape and Washington Township.
Here is Saturday’s quarterfinal schedule:
At Deptford: Cherry Hill West vs. Mainland, 10:30 a.m.; West Deptford vs. Shawnee, 1:30 p.m.
At Washington Township: Williamstown vs. Lenape, 10:30 a.m.; Sacred Heart vs. Washington Township, 1:30 p.m.
The winners at Deptford will meet in Sunday’s 1 p.m. semifinals, also at Deptford. The Washington Township winners will face each other at 1 p.m. Sunday at Washington Township.
The final will be held Sunday at 6 p.m. at Campbell’s Field, home of the Camden Riversharks.
West Deptford is the defending champion.
NJSIAA tourney qualifiers. Four of South Jersey’s six sectional champions qualified for the NJSIAA tournament: Pennsville in Group 1, Washington Township in Group 4, St. Joseph Metuchen in Non-Public A and Gloucester Catholic in Non-Public B.
Defending champions Sterling (Group 2) and Seneca (Group 3) just missed qualifying. At Friday’s cutoff date, Sterling was 8-9 and Seneca was 7-8.
Teams needed at least a .500 record to qualify for the tourney, which starts Friday.
Seneca lost a 7-1 lead and dropped a 14-11 decision to Shawnee on Thursday to finish one game under .500 at the cutoff date. Shawnee freshman Dylan Johannick fueled the comeback by hitting a grand slam in his first varsity at-bat.
Sterling missed a chance to qualify for the tourney when its game with West Deptford was postponed on Friday. The Silver Knights started the year 7-2 but lost seven of their last eight games.
The rain, however, actually helped Wildwood Catholic. The Crusaders qualified with an 8-8 record when their game with heavily favored Buena Friday was washed out. Earlier this year, Buena defeated Wildwood Catholic, 13-6.
All told, 63 teams qualified for the six South Jersey sections.
Surging Sacred Heart. Sacred Heart has shown few weaknesses as it has won 19 of its first 20 games. The Lions are hitting .402, averaging nearly 10 runs per game and have a 1.81 ERA.
Sacred Heart hitters have drawn 110 walks and struck out just 57 times.
Anthony Ramos has been the Lions’ most dominating player. On the mound, he is 4-0 with a 0.00 ERA and has struck out 29, walked five and allowed only seven hits in 192/3 innings. At the plate, he is hitting .508.
How strong is Sacred Heart’s lineup?
Well, consider this: Ramos usually bats in the No. 6 hole. And the Nos. 7, 8 and 9 hitters - Isaac Gonzalez, Chet Godfrey and Carlos Sepulveda - are batting .471, .339 and .367, respectively.
Leadoff hitter Josh Moren has been the ultimate table-setter, batting .414 and stealing 19 bases, and Jon Schmidt (.389, 3 homers) and Juan Velazquez (.455, 5 homers) have supplied power in the middle of the lineup.
Put it all together and you have a team that has legitimate state-title aspirations.
“Everybody is contributing,” said head coach John Triantos, whose son, J.T., is 4-0 on the mound.
Mighty Mite. Washington Township third baseman Mike Schatzman stands just 5-foot-5, but the 170-pound senior packs surprising punch. He is hitting .457 with three homers and 27 RBIs.
Schatzman, who will attend Rowan in September, has 97 career hits.
“He’s very strong and has great bat speed - the best bat speed of anyone I’ve seen except maybe Billy Rice,” said Township coach Bill Alvaro, referring to the Minutemen graduate who led the team to the Group 4 state title last year.
Diamond Classic leftover. Mainland’s 6-7 Charlie Law had the best performance in the eight opening-round games, striking out 13 and pitching a five-hitter as the Mustangs eliminated Winslow Township, 7-0.
The hard-throwing Law (4-0) had missed his previous start because of shoulder problems.
Hot-hitting Braves. Williamstown has won six of its last seven games, during which it has averaged 10.6 runs per contest.
Contact staff writer Sam Carchidi at 215-854-5181